The
History of Transportation
on the Mississippi River
Part 7by Richard Moore, IWLA

The course of future Mississippi
River management may be determined in the next year. The US Army Corps
of Engineers is nearing completion of a multi-year study dedicated to
determining the demand for waterborne transportation in the region over
the next 50 years. The results of their study will help Congress decide
which of a number of possible improvement to the system warrant the investment
of public funds.

Proponents of spending large
amounts of money to upgrade the locks on the river point to the fact that
they are now more than 60 years old. They were designed for barge traffic
that was much different then that which the river sees today. Most of
the lock chambers on the river are 600 feet long, while the typical string
of barges is nearly twice that length. In order to pass through the locks,
tow operators must separate the barges into two groups and pass each on
through separately. This increased the time it takes to "lock through,"
raising the cost of barge transportation. During peak traffic periods
at some of the busier locks, tows must wait for hours before they can
lock through.

On the other side of the issue
are conservationists who believe that the river is suffering from high
levels of barge traffic and that improving the system to allow more barges
to navigate the river will only worsen an already dire situation. The
point to the loss of productive backwater and side channel habitats as
evidence of the river's decline. And while it is true that we have much
to learn about the Mississippi's ecology, most of the available evidence
supports Conservationists' claims that the river is getting worse over
time.

The Corps sits at the center
of this debate. In their planning process, they must consider both the
economic value of the river's transportation industry and its value as
a natural resource. Congress has directed them to incorporate these competing
considerations into any plans they develop for the future river management.
They have been instructed to be fair and objective, and make recommendations
to Congress based on the very best science available.

In the real world, however,
situations are rarely as straightforward as they seem at first. There
are powerful political forces swirling around the scientific and technical
questions facing Mississippi River planners. Lobbyists on both sides of
the issue attempt to influence Congress, which in turn may put pressure
on the Corps to respond in ways that might compromise the objectivity
of their investigations. Constituent groups who benefit from Corps projects
may also pressure the agency directly.

Many observers suggest that
the Corps' navigation study on the Upper Mississippi has been influenced
in precisely this way. Throughout the course of the navigation study,
there have been many instances where participants, including state agencies
and private organizations representing conservation interests, have believed
that the Corps was structuring the study to justify large-scale improvements
on the Upper Mississippi.

Like so many other decisions
facing government today, the Upper Mississippi situation is cofounded
by the fact that there is no one correct solution to the problems addressed
by the navigation study. Of the hundreds of individual questions that
must be answered before a decision is made, many of them rely on guesses
about conditions in the future or rely on imperfect scientific understanding.
Planners must exercise their best professional judgment based on their
current understanding. This leaves plenty of room for argument.

On the Upper Mississippi, the
conflict has been framed by two fundamental questions. First, how severe
would the impacts of more barges on the river actually be? Second, how
economically important is barge transportation likely to be in the future?
Congress, the ultimate decision maker in this situation, must decided
if these questions have been answered correctly, and must then decide
what course of action is best for the nation.

Any discussion of the economy
of the Upper Midwest must include agriculture, so it is not surprising
that the most critical component of the debate over Mississippi River
navigation involves the shipment of huge quantities of grain, primarily
corn and soybeans, down the river for export to other nations. Resolution
of the today's arguments over the river's future will be determined by
the shape of tomorrow's agricultural economy.